Trial Shows Herbal Laxative Tea (Smooth Move) Effective in Treatment of Chronic Constipation for Elderly Adults

摘要

Elderly nursing home residents are at a high risk of developing chronic constipation. This is due to several factors including constipation-causing medication, chronic medical conditions, immobility, dietary changes, and dementia. Chronic constipationcan lead to impaction, considered to be a serious event meriting investigation when it is reported in nursing homes. For this reason, chronic constipation is aggressively managed by nursing home staff. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, examines the effect of treating chronic constipation with Smooth Move" herbal tea (Traditional Medicináis9, Sebasta-pol, California) as an addition to constipation treatments that the patients were already receiving.